A ghost town: Srebrenica 2015

After the depressing visit to the UN Headquarters at Potocari and Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre (Click here if you have not read), Ado drove us to the Srebrenica town. A quiet hollow town where road was empty and little sign of human being. It was as if the town is a chunk out of apocalyspe movie of sort where zombies are expected to come running after us. It was unusually quiet on Sunday afternoon that we asked Ado, “Is it always this quiet on Sunday here?”. His answer jolted our thoughts, “Well, when everyone is in Potocari buried six feet under, the town is always this quiet”. We took the answer with much uneasiness and our eyes fixed to the windows for the local sceneries.

Row of bullet-riddle and newly built houses are decorated with colourful flower pots as if to get rid of the black history that once washed off this quiet town. I squinted my eyes hard trying to imagine the living hell that beckoned the town 20 years ago when Srebrenica men and boys were either rounded up in Potocari or were detained in various public buildings before being transferred by bus to execution sites and killed. The masterminds of the genocide, Mladic and Karadzic ordered for the remained buried in enormous mass graves to be exhumed and scatter the remains into smaller graves along the Drina River bassin, the so-called ‘Valley of Death’ in the hope that the remains would not be found. On seeing fields, I wondered if they served as the killing fields.

When the reach the centre of the town, we saw the yellow building seen on the video footage at Potocari-Srebrenica Memorial Centre where Ratko Mladic was seen walking through Srebrenica town on 11 July 1995 and indicate: “We give this town to the Serb people as a gift … Finally the time has come to take our revenge on the Turks [referring to Muslims] in this region.” A revenge of 800 years – something my logic mind could never understand.

Most of the houses are now empty and deserted, riddled with bullets and heavy shellings. The owners are dead or migrate to another town or country.

We were taken to an abandoned bungalow on top of a hill overlooking the Srebrenica town.

Fields of grave are patched among the buildings. A walk in Srebrenica sends a chill down the spine because the town is haunted. The quest for justice is far from over for Srebrenica people. The recent Russian veto over resolution to declare it as a genocide is heartbreaking. And we shall not stop fighting for justice which is due after 20 years.

We ended up the tour with a lunch at Ado’s house. Her mother used to cook food for the UN batallion when they were in Srebenica. Her mother prepared the best filo pastries in the world. I can personally attest to this. No bureks we ate in Bosnia are close to the taste. For the lunch we had to pay an extra EURO10, which was worth every penny because the food was incredibly delicious.

And she prepared us Bosnian Coffee too! Bosnian Coffee is strong and thick as mud with presence of foam. Do you know that you are not supposed plop the sugar cubes in the cup and drink it like a normal cup of coffee? I have to confess that I too, on my first breakfast in Bosnia, throw three cubes of sugar into my cup and drink. Not my proudest moment, of course.

“When you’re ready for your coffee, first take a sip of water. Spoon out a layer of foam from the top, then pour from the džezva before adding the foam to the cup (after all, Bosnian coffee with no foam is no Bosnian coffee at all). If you want sugar, don’t plop it in your drink; instead, take a bite from one of the cubes on your tray and put it under your tongue to dissolve as you sip.” The Complicated Culture of Bosnian Coffee by Brad Cohen.

It gives you a taste of local home in Srebrenica. As you can see the cups are arranged in order for Ado’s mother to make equal distribution of foam to each cup.

Bosnian Coffee.

Thick and strong; not everyone’s cup of drink.

If you are interested to visit Srebrenica, I recommend Sarajevo Funky Tours. Ask for Skender, he is very helpful and reliable. (Date of travel : 16/09/2015)